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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27259648">A FOREST ON FIRE - How The Relationship Between Senju Hashirama And Uchiha Madara Shaped The Modern World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwfulLoneliness/pseuds/AwfulLoneliness'>AwfulLoneliness</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>All-timey gay people and the letters to prove it, Alledged Relationship, Epistolary Novel of Sorts, Essays, M/M, historical revisionism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:22:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27259648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwfulLoneliness/pseuds/AwfulLoneliness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A lifelong investigation has lead me to the theory posited in this essay: Uchiha Madara left Konoha because, even though Senju Hashirama loved him, Hashirama loved Konoha more.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Senju Hashirama/Uchiha Madara</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>92</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Founders Week 2020, fffffffff, why im sleep deprived 💖✨</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A FOREST ON FIRE - How The Relationship Between Senju Hashirama And Uchiha Madara Shaped The Modern World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>A FOREST ON FIRE</b>
</p><p>
  <b>HOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENJU HASHIRAMA AND UCHIHA MADARA SHAPED THE MODERN WORLD</b>
</p><p>
  <b>By Osoroshii Kodoku</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>About the Author</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Osoroshii Kodoku was born in Konohagakure no Sato in 1951. She graduated with a degree in History from Fire Capital University in 1977, and has dedicated her life to the study of shinobi and queer history.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Her published works include the essays As Your Steel Clashes With Mine: How the Fighting Castes Shaped Our Understanding of Queer Culture; A Box Full of Goodbye Letters and Other Cries for Help, and Rivalry is Another Way to Tell You How Much I Love You, as well as the fictional historical romances set in the Warring Clans Period known as the White Rose, Red Blood Saga.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>INTRODUCTION</b>
</p><p>
  <span>This book came to me as a surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>During Sarutobi Hiruzen's time as Hokage, I had asked for access to Konoha's Historical Archives over and over again, and over and over again I was denied access, so I decided to leave the project I had in mind in the back burner and focused on other things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But then Suna and Oto attacked Kohona. Thankfully, my family and I weren't in the village at the time, so we were unharmed, though we were saddened when we heard about the passing of Sandaime-sama. Despite my opinions on him, he had been a steady presence, looking over the village for over five decades (minus the year and some Namikaze Minato had been Hokage).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Senju Tsunade-hime was named Godaime, I decided to ask for clearance to the Historical Archives again. I had wanted to write about the intertwining of queer culture and shinobi life since I had graduated from college, and the best way to learn about it was by reading the first-hand accounts I was certain I would find there. After all, most people donate their diaries and sometimes letters to the Archives after they die since the time of the Founders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To my surprise, Godaime-sama brought with her the winds of change, and this time I was granted access. It was a bureaucratic nightmare, but when I set foot in that room I knew it had been worth it. I perused letters and diaries for two years, and I finally came up with the book I had dreamed about for almost two decades: </span>
  <em>
    <span>As Your Steel Clashes With Mine </span>
  </em>
  <span>takes a long and detailed look into how the fighting castes, samurai and shinobi alike, defined our modern understanding of queer culture throughout the Elemental Nations, with a focus on Fire Country, of course. If you're gay you should read it, I won't even be mad if you borrow instead of buying.</span>
</p><p><span>But I almost dropped dead on my spot among priceless history when I was given an once-in-a-lifetime, never-before-offered opportunity: the Founder's writings. The actual notebooks and scrolls written</span> <span>by the people who made this Village a reality. First Jounin Commander Senju Touka's reports, first ANBU Head Uchiha Naori's mission assignments, first police commissioner Uchiha Hikaku's personal notes on crimes, Uzumaki Mito's annotated books, Nidaime Hokage Senju Tobirama's experiment notes, Shodai Hokage Senju Hashirama's plan for a bonsai garden written on a napkin (yes, I swear that is an actual thing I saw with my own two eyes). </span><em><span>The peace agreement between Senju and Uchiha.</span></em><span> Of course they weren't the originals, only redacted photocopies, but that was the kind of thing I became a historian for.</span></p><p>
  <span>But among all of that, something else caught my eye: Uchiha Madara's diaries. Such a thing not only existed, but was being freely offered to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I must admit, on pain of being considered a traitor, that I have always been fascinated by the man. He signed peace and built a village to live in harmony with his clan's eternal enemies, only to desert it not two years later and try to destroy it with the Kyuubi. Who should have been a pillar and staple of Konoha was reduced to a footnote on history books, his existence both swept under the rug and an elephant in the room, the dichotomy making for a very bulky rug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was too good an opportunity to pass up, so I read them. And then I read them again because I couldn't quite grasp what was in front of me. Then I started to cross-reference them with other founder's writings and I had no other choice but to believe the picture they painted. It was a surprise I have turned into a book, this book you're holding in your hands right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I would say it takes a bold step forward, but it's more likely it takes a bold sprint forward, maybe even a bold marathon forward. You may not like what you read here and you may dispute it, but everything I write about has basis on something found in the Founders' writings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was so bold I knew it wasn't even going to be published, so I decided to bet all or nothing and be even bolder: Instead of submitting a copy for clearance, I sent the original to Tsunade-sama, to her home. Half this book is about her Grandfather after all, and I didn't want it to get lost among the paperwork that apparently sprouts around any given Hokage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three weeks later, I was summoned to her office to discuss the book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We argued more than discussed about it. And then she personally sent the ok to print it because she liked my gamble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I'm eternally thankful to Tsunade-sama, not only for the clearance, but for being able to look at what I presented to her and accept it for what it is. Not something nice, but something quite possibly true, and maybe it's what we all need to do: accept things as they are even if we don't like it, because if you pretend nothing's wrong then nothing can be changed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>A PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WRITINGS USED FOR REFERENCE FOR CLARIFICATION'S SAKE</b>
</p><p>
  <span>I used many sources to make this book, and I consider a physical description of them is useful to understand the complications that arise when trying to date certain writings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Village letters, minutes of meetings and complaints are easy enough. They're painstakingly dated and written plainly, and most of them are relatively easy to apply for clearance to see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Personal letters are another matter. They are usually encrypted between members of a family, and the keys to decode them are not available if the code is still being used to this day, so I couldn't read many of them, but I think I had enough for this book with what I could decipher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Senju Touka's diaries are heavily encrypted with what appears to be a double substitution and I couldn't make heads or tails of it. That woman kept her thoughts in her own head even if they were on paper, and therefore I couldn't use almost none of her writings for this book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Senju Tobirama's journals are mostly research and experiment logs, and therefore heavily redacted. He also didn't seem inclined to talk about something so trivial as what was happening outside his own head, so what I could read in his journals were of no use to my research.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Uchiha Hikaku's diaries aren't many, but they're easily decrypted and quite juicy for the last leg of this book. Kami bless this man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Uchiha Izuna's diaries are two lone scrolls, and that's a true shame and maybe a fitting metaphor for his life. One is an angry ramble directed to Madara. The other, once deciphered, shows glimpses of an interesting, conflicted soul and the markings of something akin to greatness, and it's cut short by his death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Senju Hashirama's diaries are many, many and more still. There are 52 of them in total, going from his late teens –right before he became head of the Senju clan– to shortly before his death. They are lineal, unencrypted, and even though not all of his entries have a date, a time frame is easily inferred from the contents themselves. Most of this book relies on this man's open heart and forthcoming nature being poured into those notebooks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Uchiha Madara's journals I am hesitant to call journals at all. They're a collection of books, scrolls and assorted notes, totaling sixteen altogether. Most of them are not encrypted, but they have a quality of train-of-thought, rambling catharsis to them and a lack of dates that's almost infuriating. Some can be placed within a certain time frame, but not all. Dating and working them into this book has been a challenge, but one I think was utmost necessary. After all, half of this book is about him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>INTRODUCTION FOR THE THIRD AND SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS</b>
</p><p>
  <span>In the wake of the Fourth Shinobi War, we have debated long and hard about republishing this book, and we finally came to the conclusion that it was a must.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We all were sleeping in the tree, so we, as a publishing house, have decided the views presented here can maybe inject some sort of meaning into the meaningless hell that was this war for the world as a whole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We tried to get Osoroshii-san to write this new introduction, but she declined. She's still deeply shaken by the loss of her son to the tree, and she has decided to stay away from history for the time being.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Our sympathies go to her and everyone else who has lost a loved one in this war, and we make a vow to donate fifty percent of the book's profits to war relief efforts from the third edition onward in perpetuity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[…]</span>
</p><p>
  <b>CHAPTER TWO: A DREAM SOON TO BE A REALITY</b>
</p><p>
  <span>So far, I have presented you with what little we have on Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara's childhood through early adulthood: two kids who met by a river, get separated by their families and find themselves again on opposite sides of the battlefield. If this premise appeared in one of Jiraiya-sama's romance novels I would call it cliched and trite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anyway, their clans' war kept raging on well into their late twenties, and they fought each other and no one else because no one else was at their level. But even then, still at war, they wouldn't shut up about each other:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] I keep asking </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> to consider peace, but every time he seems to soften at the thought, it is only a brief moment and then his eyes become steel-hard again [...]</span></em> <span>(Letter from Senju Hashirama to Senju Tobirama, September 30</span><span>th</span><span> 1888)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] what we dreamt about on that cliff so long ago, we </span></em><span>[Hashirama and Madara]</span><em><span> can make now a reality [...] I refuse to believe there is nothing left of the boy I met at the river [...]</span></em> <span>(Letter from Senju Hashirama to Uchiha Madara, May 3</span><span>rd</span><span> 1888)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] there is nothing we </span></em><span>[Hashirama and Madara]</span><em><span> cannot achieve if we work together, I know now. If only he were not so full of doubts [...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 30</span><span>th</span><span> diary, June 20</span><span>th</span><span> 1886.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[Hashirama]</span><em><span> keeps talking about peace every time we dance</span></em> <span>(A/N: Madara never utilizes the word 'fight' in the context of a physical confrontation; instead, he refers to it as 'dancing') </span><em><span>[...]What else could I hope for but the peace we dreamt of as children? […] [but] all the blood between us will be neither easily nor readily forgotten […] too many of our clansmen </span></em><span>[Uchiha and Senju]</span><em><span> cling to vengeance for it to be anything but the fancy of two innocent children who did not know any better, rest assured of it [...]</span></em><span> (Letter from Uchiha Madara to Uchiha Izuna, July 15</span><span>th</span><span> 1887)</span></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] if I could go back to simpler times, to be but a boy skipping rocks on the river, I would […] but we could never erase […] the blood and death between our clans […] this senseless war has been driving a wedge </span>
  </em>
  <span>[between Uchiha and Senju]</span>
  <em>
    <span> since before our grandfathers' grandfathers were born […] I am afraid, Hashirama, that simpler times are long past between us[...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Letter from Uchiha Madara to Senju Hashirama, May 8</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1888)</span>
</p><p><em><span>[…] This war will end up claiming my life, one way or another […] I wish I were either capable of making my men see reason or as </span></em><span>[blotched out line]</span><em><span> dumbly optimistic as Hashirama […] I fear peace will only be an option when the right blood soaks the ground, but so be it. There is no one I would rather be felled by than him</span></em><span> [Hashirama] </span><em><span>[…] I consider it the greatest honour, to die by the hand of the God of Shinobi [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Madara's 13</span><span>th</span><span> journal, circa May to September 1908. It </span><span>also includes the earliest known written usage of God of Shinobi in relation to Senju Hashirama.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What little remains written by Hashirama and Madara from those pre-village times read mostly like this sample. On the one hand, we have Hashirama, reaching for Madara about peace over and over with one of the worst cases of tunnel vision I've ever read; Madara calls him dumbly optimistic. On the other hand, we have Madara, a man plagued by self-doubt and torn between wanting peace to stop the death and honoring the sacrifices done by those already dead; full of doubts, Hashirama says of him</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hashirama's handwriting is firm, easy to read and kind of blocky, and he used simple words and sentences that went straight to the point. He was prone to spelling mistakes (his personal notes are full of blotched out kanji) but he rarely rambles: he knew exactly what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. Madara's is the exact opposite: elegant and twirly, flowing more like drawing than writing, beautiful to look at but painful to read. He used a lot of analogies, unnecessary adjectives and metaphors, and he rambled, forgot the point and backtracked constantly; he made no spelling mistakes but he usually blotched out whole sentences. It's almost ridiculous to see how they were the yin to the other's yang.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They spoke of each other with exasperated fondness, maybe even a certain longing, as if they were anything but mortal enemies, despite their inner circles' insistence on reminding them they were supposed to kill each other:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] I tell anija </span></em><span>[Hashirama]</span><em><span> he has no way to know if next time </span></em><span>[Madara] </span><em><span>will drive a blade through his mouth when he opens it to speak of peace, but he only laughs and tells me he is sure nothing of the sort will happen […] I despair of anija's recklessness so much […] sometimes he does not remember he is an Uchiha and not a friend [...]</span></em> <span>(Letter from Senju Tobirama to Senju Touka, October 23</span><span>rd</span><span> 1907)</span></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I am tired of seeing you </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara] </span>
  <em>
    <span>doing little more than sparring on the battlefield as if he </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Hashirama]</span>
  <em>
    <span> were still your friend […] I am begging you to strike fast and true only once so we can be rid of the Senju, but yet you insist on listening to </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Hashirama's]</span>
  <em>
    <span> madness [...] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Uchiha Izuna's Rambling Scroll, August 1908.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This is the general situation Hashirama and Madara are facing: a war going on since before they were born with no end in sight, people dying to avenge the dead and conversations about peace while they fought. It seemed to be a stalemate, but all stalemates can be broken. And on May 19</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span>, 1909 years after Rikudou Sennin was born, break it did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>May 19</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1909 is the date Senju Tobirama brought his famous Hiraishin jutsu into battle for the first time, and it gave him enough of an edge to grievously injure his own Uchiha rival, Madara's younger brother, Izuna.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, Uchiha Izuna succumbed to his wounds and his funeral pyre (as is Uchiha custom) was lit. When it finally went out, Madara gathered his clan and headed for the battlefield to clash against the Senju once more. It was, probably, the first time he and Hashirama fought seriously.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…]</span></em><span> [Madara]</span><em><span> used a full-body Susano'o</span></em><span> (A/N: Susano'o appears to be some type of chakra armor unique to Uchiha Madara)</span><em><span>, the likes of which no one had seen before and only saw once after, standing at least twice as high as the nearby canyon […] </span></em><span>[Hashirama]</span><em><span> responded with a mokuton</span></em> <span>(A/N: Mokuton is the name of a kekkei genkai that manipulates wood and trees, which was unique to Senju Hashirama) </span><em><span>statue, even taller than [the Susano'o], and we fled the battlefield, unable to even look at that kind of might […] </span></em><span>[Hashirama and Madara]</span><em><span> fought for a whole day, until Madara-sama was lying on the ground, his chakra exhausted […] the grief brought on by </span></em><span>[Madara's]</span><em><span> brother's death was incommensurable, so now I think he intended to commit suicide by Senju, and Hashirama-sama was the only one capable of doing it […] We </span></em><span>[Uchiha clan]</span><em><span> surrendered when we saw our strongest warrior defeated, ready to accept whatever the Senju decided to do with us […] </span></em><span>[but]</span><em><span> Hashirama-sama still spoke to Madara-sama of peace […] still lying on the ground, </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> said there was no way to see the true intentions of a man […] then demanded the price for peace was either his [Hashirama's] or his brother's </span></em><span>[Tobirama's]</span><em><span> death, to have a glimpse of Hashirama-sama's true commitment </span></em><span>[to</span> <span>peace]</span><em><span> […] an obvious last ditch attempt to get </span></em><span>[Hashirama]</span><em><span> to kill </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> [...] but Hashirama-sama halted his brother's sword and thanked </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> for giving him a choice, calling him a good man […] </span></em><span>[Hashirama]</span><em><span> stripped himself of his armor despite the protests of his clan, and was about to drive a kunai into his own gut when Madara-sama stopped him, telling him he had seen how deep his conviction ran […] peace was signed shortly afterwards […] the village followed shortly [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Takeshi's diary, May 23</span><span>rd</span><span> 1910. It is by far the most detailed recount of that battle.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I have a hunch Uchiha Madara wasn't a man to do things halfway. He had decided he didn't want to live in a world without his brother and he made everything in his power to die in a way he probably thought of as meaningful by the hand of the only man he thought worthy of taking his life, but Hashirama was having none of that dying nonsense because he had a dream to fulfill and Madara was an integral part of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p>
  <b>CHAPTER THREE: KONOHA IS BORN</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Now we've reached the crescendo of Hashirama and Madara's story. Everything is perfect now, but don't you dare forget for a single second this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>a comedy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least a dozen drafts for the peace treaty were written before it was formally signed. The Senju don't take as much as they could from their defeated enemies-turned-roommates, the Uchiha don't complain as much as they could to make their defeat sting less. Hashirama and Madara found the cliff from their childhood and started building the village on its shadow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything is perfect. But this is not a comedy, and it's a writing rule that everything is perfect before a story turns into a tragedy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] I wake up every day and I cannot believe we achieved it [...]everything looks promising as we build the village, and already some civilians have moved in […] Madara and I went to the new shop and tried this coffee everyone is talking about. It was so disgustingly strong and bitter I almost spit it out, and he got a chuckle at my expense. I have not heard him laughing since Izuna's death, but this chuckle, as small as it was, warmed my heart […]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 33</span><span>rd </span><span>diary, May 13</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] We went back to the top of the cliff to look down upon the village. […] It needs a name, and I asked Madara to decide since he is so much better at naming things than me. Or at least that was my belief until this very same evening, when he picked up a leaf with a hole in it and decided upon the name Konohagakure no Sato. I cannot believe the lack of imagination that went into that name. I am appalled [...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 33</span><span>rd</span><span> diary, July 4</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] we went to try this new coffee drink. I liked it quite enough, but Hashirama spit it out and flailed his arms like a hen would her wings, making a fool of himself in front of everyone again […] I enjoy the reprieve his presence brings to my life, the way he </span>
  </em>
  <span>[a few blotched out words]</span>
  <em>
    <span> keeps the void in check without even realising it […] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Uchiha </span>
  
  <span>Madara's 14</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, circa May 13</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910)</span>
</p><p><em><span>[…] The work is much and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork it is generating […] but when we </span></em><span>[Madara and Hashirama]</span><em><span> take a stroll through the village just for the sake of it, and we find ourselves on top of the cliff, he looks down upon it with such a radiance he </span></em><span>[two lines blotched out thoroughly]</span><em><span> makes me want to believe in something again, in this dream we share, in myself, in us [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Madara's 15</span><span>th</span><span> journal, circa May to June 1910.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They wrote almost tenderly about each other during the period the village was under construction, but something started changing by the time the first shinobi clans thought about joining.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Madara had taken to avoiding working at the soon-to-be-named Hokage Tower. It was the place where Senju Tobirama spent most of his time, and he understandably didn't want to be crossing paths with his brother's killer every day.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] every time I see </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Tobirama]</span>
  <em>
    <span> I see Izuna's blood dripping from his hands […] Even those days when I can feel nothing, the sight of him is enough to alight the deepest rage inside of me […] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Uchiha Madara's 16</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, circa June 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p><span>Madara had been losing his eyesight during the war, but he recovered it fully after Izuna's death because he had Izuna's eyes transplanted on him. Apparently it's not uncommon in the shinobi world to transplant a doujutsu eye</span> <em><span>(A/N: There is a famous Konoha shinobi with an implanted sharingan, and there are rumors of a Kirigakure shinobi with a transplanted doujutsu, but they are mostly hearsay with no way to be proven)</span></em><span>, but there was a worrying, whispered version about the method of acquisition: some people said he had stolen them before Izuna was dead.</span></p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] I worry about how trusting you are of him </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span>. […] there are rumours, even from his own clan […] </span></em><span>[they]</span><em><span> say he ripped the eyes out of his brother's skull before he was even dead [...]</span></em> <span>(Letter from Senju Tobirama to Senju Hashirama, May 21</span><span>st</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The few who knew him personally were appalled by this rumor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] do not dare repeating such a filthy lie, Tobirama. […] Do they not know how deeply his love for his brother ran? [...]</span></em> <span>(Letter from Senju Hashirama to Senju Tobirama, June 1</span><span>st</span><span> 1910.(</span></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I do not know who started </span>
  </em>
  <span>[the rumor]</span>
  <em>
    <span>, but I would love to, so I can deal him his due punishment […] </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara]</span>
  <em>
    <span> loved Izuna so much he would have cut his own hands off before hurting a single hair on his head […] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Note from Uchiha Hikaku to Senju Hashirama, June 5</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Here is what Madara wrote about it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] Of all the things they could accuse me of this is the only one that truly hurts […] I should </span>
  </em>
  <span>[furious blotching]</span>
  <em>
    <span> crack my own ribcage open in the middle of the square so they can see instead of a heart I have a the hole in the shape of Izuna […] I will find whoever started this lie and make him answer [...] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Uchiha Madara's 16</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, circa May to July 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Madara had never completely recovered from Izuna's death, and the whispers that followed him worsened his state. By the time the first shinobi clans moved in, he started to avoid being out in Konoha's streets too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] I had not seen </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> for three days, so I went to his house and invited him to dine at the new Akimichi barbecue. He was reluctant to go […] I should have listened to him, because as soon as we entered the room quieted suspiciously […] we ate mostly in silence […] his shoulders were hunched over and he looked defeated, and it was one of the most despicable sights I have seen in my life. Defeat does not suit him […] I tried to cheer him up to no avail […] I guess we will have our next meals either at his house or mine [...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 33</span><span>rd</span><span> diary, June 4</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> has refused to have lunch at my house for a whole month straight, so I went over to his, with two bento boxes in hand […] when he finally let me in I was horrified at the filth inside his house. Everything has a layer of dust, there are used clothes thrown about, a pile of dirty dishes sat on his sink. I jokingly suggested the name of the lady who keeps house for me is not a village secret and I could share it with him, and he only shrugged and said the mess wasn't really a problem to him […] the bags under his eyes are more prominent, now they mar his regal features instead of adding character to his face. I bet he has not been sleeping well lately […] lost some weight too, I can see it in his arms. They are not as toned as they used to be […] nobody seems to understand how painful it is to see him in such a state, deteriorating from the village-wide shunning he is suffering [...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 34</span><span>th</span><span> diary, August 1</span><span>st</span><span>, 1910.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] Our own clan </span></em><span>[Uchiha]</span><em><span> is avoiding him, and this is what we have come to […] </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> renounced his pride, saw his brother die, would have laid his life for us, and now most of the clan will not meet his eyes […] I overheard someone at the village calling him eyestealer and brotherkiller. […] I made sure a broken jaw will not let him speak for a long time [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's 5</span><span>th</span><span> diary, July 17</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] Madara has been unable to deal with clan matters as of lately, and those duties have fallen squarely on my shoulders. […] I am woefully inadequate but I do not wish to further add to his worries. […] sometimes I fear he will never recover […] Now he loses his patience at the slightest provocation, and his temper flares dangerously [...] not even this dream village of his brings any respite to his heart [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's 5</span><span>th</span><span> diary, August 8</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[Shimura Kanzou]</span><em><span> claims the above mentioned </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> threatened one of his civilian clansmember and punched a hole in the wall next to her head [...]</span></em> <span>(Formal complaint filled out in front of the Hokage by Shimura Kanzou, head of his clan, against Uchiha Madara, on July 23</span><span>rd</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I am in no way qualified enough to make an indisputable claim, but I can recognize the self-isolation, disregard for basic hygiene, weight loss, sleep deprivation and even the struggle to contain a bad temper as probably symptoms of depression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Uchiha Madara was depressed as fuck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[...]</span>
</p><p>
  <b>CHAPTER FOUR: THE DREAM SHATTERS</b>
</p><p>
  <span>[…]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So we have traced the path Uchiha Madara walked down to go from hopeful to depressed: grief at his brother's death, isolation from work so he doesn't bump into his brother's killer, isolation from the village so he doesn't hear the whispers of eyestealer and brotherkiller that follow him, with the only two people he trust enough to relay on swamped by work. It's easy to see why he spiraled downward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But here's the point: all depressed, suicidal shinobi I know tend to grab the most dangerous missions they can lay their hands on in the hopes of not coming back from one, a practice common enough to have a name: suicide by mission.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not a single one of my acquaintances tried to set Konoha on fire. Depressed is not a synonym of homicidal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, what happened to get Madara from suicidally depressed to murderously mad? And take into account the timeline is really rushed from here on. There is a year and two months between this:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] We have begun construction today […] Madara-sama was busy all day carrying rocks for the foundations and trunks for the beams, all of this barechested, and when it prompted several wistful sighs amongst the Senju, Hashirama-sama took it as a challenge and stripped too, without a second thought to spare for the lesser men of the likes of us. How am I to get a wife now? […] I think their idea of peace might include a village-wide orgy […]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's 4</span><span>th</span><span> diary, March 28</span><span>th</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And this:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> has grown paranoid too, claiming your brother </span></em><span>[Tobirama]</span><em><span> is plotting against us and will be the downfall of our clan […] I think he wants us to leave Konoha […]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's note to Senju Hashirama, December 28</span><span>th</span><span>, 1910)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Madara himself is stubbornly tight-lipped about what was going on in his head. His journals stopped completely after July 1910, right after the rumors of his stealing of his brother's eyes reached their peak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those rumors were mercilessly squashed by Hashirama and several members of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Hikaku chief among them, by late August 1910. While Madara didn't pick up his writing, he seemed to be doing better after that:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> came to me and asked about the clan's affairs […] he told me he is sorry and he intends to pick up his slack [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's 6</span><span>th</span><span> diary, unspecified date in late September 1910)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] I offered to cook for him </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> again, expecting the invitation to be declined like all the others before, but he finally accepted! I realised too late that I do not know how to make inarizushi so I had to buy it from the restaurant and placed it on a tray so it looked like I had made it myself [...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 34</span><span>th</span><span> diary, September 2</span><span>nd</span><span> 1910.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For clarity's sake, I'll make a brief timeline:</span>
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<em><span>Late May 1910: first written accounts of the rumors.</span></em><em><span><br/>
</span></em> 
</li>
<li>
<em><span>Early July 1910: Madara isolates himself from the public eye and starts neglecting his clan duties.</span></em><em><span><br/>
</span></em> 
</li>
<li>
<em><span>Late August 1910: the rumors are stopped by the Hokage and Uchiha clan.</span></em><em><span><br/>
</span></em> 
</li>
<li>
<em><span>September 1910: Madara seems to improve from his depressive state.</span></em><em><span><br/>
</span></em> 
</li>
<li>
<em><span>January 5</span></em><em><span>th</span></em><em><span>, 1911: Madara leaves Konoha.</span></em><em><span><br/>
</span></em> 
</li>
</ul><p><span>Between September and October of 1910 something</span> <span>might have</span> <span>happened to make Madara not only backtrack what little improvement he had, but devolve so much he left Konoha three or four months later, and for the love of all that is holy, I had no idea what.</span></p><p>
  <span>When I couldn't find what prompted this change among his inner circle, I started rummaging through Village's affairs. Maybe it was some new law that got approved, a new clan joining that he felt negatively about, maybe Senju Tobirama did something? Nothing, nothing and more nothing.</span>
</p><p><span>Now, I am completely aware I might be overreaching. It's possible nothing happened to make Madara leave Konoha; he had the most spectacular descent into madness, but he wasn't the only Uchiha to go insane overnight: Uchiha Itachi killed 343 members of his own family without so much as a by your leave</span> <em><span>(for comparison, Madara riding the Kyuubi into Konoha had a body count of two [2] elderly people who probably died of fright</span></em><span>)</span><span>, but it just </span><em><span>irked </span></em><span>me so much that he was improving and then snapped so hard, I felt comfortable enough to say there must have been some sort of trigger, and these are the only things I could find:</span></p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] you are the only one </span></em><span>[Madara]</span><em><span> still listens to, Hokage-sama, and for that I beg of you: please help him. He has spent his every waking hour at our clan's shrine for the past two months, but he does not pray. He claims he has found the way to true peace on the knowledge imparted on a heirloom of our clan's [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Hikaku's note to Senju Hashirama, December 28</span><span>th</span><span>, 1910)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Apparently sometime in late November Madara found some ancient artifact that told him how to achieve peace and by December he had become completely obsessed with it. Ok, I thought when I saw it for the first time, this must be it, but it's treated more like a effect than a cause among the people who knew him:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[...]I cannot find him </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara]</span>
  <em>
    <span> again. I invited him for dinner three days ago and he agreed, but now he is nowhere to be found. He is once again disappearing and isolating, and whatever was ailing him has returned full force. Not even Hikaku knows of his whereabouts […] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Senju Hashirama's 34</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> diary, November 6</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Right before this mysterious heirloom entered the picture, there was only one thing that changed: between September and October 1910 Konoha entered an alliance with the newly formed Uzushiogakure, but surely an alliance with a powerhouse wouldn't warrant such a spiral downward?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But one of the Uzushiogakure letter's date caught my eyes, along with its contents:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] October 14</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>th</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>, 1910 […] it is agreed, then, that Ashina's daughter, Mito, shall go spend a season in Konoha as soon as the weather allows it […] we would be greatly pleased if you were to ask her for her hand in marriage.[…]</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I ran to grab Hashirama's 28</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> diary and flipped through it until I reached the entry for October 17</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span>:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I told Madara about the alliance with Uzushiogakure […] I joked about the upcoming wedding, trying to lighten the mood, but he still seemed subdued after that […] but I have to protect Konoha, and this marriage is the best way to achieve it [...]</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That's it, the only changes between the time Madara was getting out of his depression and when he deserted: an engagement and a heirloom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then on January 4</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span>, Madara spoke with Hashirama, the last person in the village he talked to, and left after midnight of the 5</span>
  <span>th.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara]</span>
  <em>
    <span> took me to a hidden room in his clan's shrine and showed me a tablet. He said </span>
  </em>
  <span>[that]</span>
  <em>
    <span> Konoha is no longer his dream, that he has found the true path to peace on it </span>
  </em>
  <span>[the tablet]</span>
  <em>
    <span> […] he told me I will soon see […] he left the village under the cover of darkness last night. He is gone and I do not know what to do[.] </span>
  </em>
  <span>(Senju Hashirama's 35</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> diary, January 5</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1911. The ink on this entry is blurred by what appears to be round stains, like some sort of liquid had been poured on it.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now it's time for you to sit on the floor so you don't drop on your ass when I tell you my theory as to why he left: </span>
  <em>
    <span>Uchiha Madara left Konoha because he was in love with Senju Hashirama and couldn't bear the thought of Hashirama marrying. </span>
  </em>
  <span>And in turn, to make matters more dramatic, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Senju Hashirama loved Uchiha Madara but chose to marry for the good of Konoha.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But I bet you want evidence for this. That is what the next chapter is for.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>CHAPTER FIVE: MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Did you know that during the Founder's time being gay was no biggie? That is why Uchiha Madara talked so openly about his lovers:</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[…] As the danger passed, I looked at him, dirt and blood on his skin, and I did not bother to ask his name before we were tearing each other's clothes off [...]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Madara's 8</span><span>th</span><span> journal, circa April 1906)</span></p><p><em><span>[…] </span></em><span>[They]</span><em><span> were curious about what a shinobi could do, and I was drunk enough to recklessly agree. […] I would have loved to visit them again, </span></em><span>[a whole line blotched out]</span><em><span> but Masashi was dead and Takahiro was dying as I left them. A Kaguya decided to attack me when I was at their house, and they were caught in the crossfire. The only thing I had left to do was avenging them. […]</span></em> <span>(Uchiha Madara's 8</span><span>th</span><span> journal, late 1907.)</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And like this Madara goes on and on and on, quite poetically, about his lovers. I couldn't find any mention of him having sex with a woman ever, so I'm led to believe Madara was one of the few confirmed </span>
  <em>
    <span>monosexuals</span>
  </em>
  <span> in shinobi history; bisexuality was almost the norm among shinobi until at least the Second War, as shown in this excerpts from Senju Hashirama's diaries :</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>[….] I turned around when I heard my name. I didn't recognize him at first because his hair is thinning now and he has put on some weight, but when he spoke I knew it was Akira. […] He asked me if I remembered him! How could I forget my very first time?[...]</span></em> <span>(Senju Hashirama's 36</span><span>th</span><span> diary, May 23</span><span>rd</span><span> 1925.)</span></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] The cook kept giving me double rations, so I decided to see if I had read the situation right […] thank Kami the pantry could be locked from the inside or I would have been caught with my trousers literally down […] now she gives me double rations and a smile, so she probably liked it as much as I did [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju</span>
  
  <span>Hashirama's 31</span>
  <span>st</span>
  <span> diary, August 16</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1908.)</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] the twins from the Terumi clan, Takato and Takako, came as emissaries from Kirigakure. […] It was an awkward meeting, considering what we did back in the day [….] they kept making suggestive comments, but I cannot give in so easily now that I have Konoha to think about [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju Hashirama's 36</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> diary, April 22</span>
  <span>nd</span>
  <span> 1928.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I think this is enough evidence about their sexuality, but it only proves they </span>
  <em>
    <span>could </span>
  </em>
  <span>have been attracted to one another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Were they, though? I hope this choice pieces help me make my point:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] the light was catching so enticingly in his </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara's]</span>
  <em>
    <span> hair I had to stop the urge to card my fingers through it [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju Hashirama's 33</span>
  <span>rd</span>
  <span> diary, May 6</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910.)</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I like having the possibility of looking into Madara's eyes, now that we have signed the peace treaty. I have come to realize they are as black as charcoal and with the light of a lit ember [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju Hashirama's 33</span>
  <span>rd</span>
  <span> diary, May 20</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910.)</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] but </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Madara´s]</span>
  <em>
    <span> chuckle, as small as it was, warmed my heart […]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju Hashirama's 33</span>
  <span>rd</span>
  <span> diary, May 13</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As a rule, Hashirama wasn't poetic in his descriptions. He was always brief and straight to the point, but when he talked about Madara he waxed some top notch poetry I can feel right in my gay heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the opposite end, the smooth and poetic Madara became a mess around Hashirama, and I can also relate to that down to my gay bones:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I fumbled again in front of him </span>
  </em>
  <span>[Hashirama]</span>
  <em>
    <span>. </span>
  </em>
  <span>[A couple of words blotched out]</span>
  <em>
    <span>. Why is it he incites foolery every time he speaks of the future in that way he has? [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Uchiha Madara's 15</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, circa June 1910.)</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] I cannot believe such a stupid joke made me laugh. Thankfully I managed to turn it into a snort in time [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Uchiha Madara's 15</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, circa June 1910.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>These two excerpts are interesting but not so explicit, but you know how I roll, so obviously I kept the best for last:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[Start of text] Bad spirits are exorcised by word and prayer and incense, but how can one exorcise a spirit that might not even be one such, but only a figment of his own mind? By ink and paper I might try.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I dreamt of </span>
  </em>
  <span>[more or less the space for two kanji blotched out]</span>
  <em>
    <span> again last night, the way I do every time we dance. I remember being pinned down, defeated, rough bark against my skin, and he was above me and around me and then </span>
  </em>
  <span>[three lines thoroughly blotched out] <em>[End of text]. </em>(Uchiha Madara's 7</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> journal, early 1909.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Granted, the only name written in that brief dream description is erased, but in Madara's writings he refers to fights as dances. Since the wording suggested an usual recurrence, I looked up who the Uchiha usually fought against during the timeframe of the writing. By crossreferencing Uchiha official recounts of missions and battles, I was able to determine that all throughout 1908 and most of 1909, Uchiha and Senju were having major battles at least once a month. I might be reading too much into this, but Madara writing specifically about bark doesn’t help his case.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[…]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Madara came to attack Konoha by himself four times after his desertion, each time more violently than before, but he was always noticed and intercepted by Hashirama before he reached the village proper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe casually or maybe causally two months after Uzumaki Mito had arrived in Konoha and two weeks after her engagement to Hashirama had been announced, he attacked for the fifth time, and brought the Kyuubi along.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>[…]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Madara and Hashirama fought for over a day, turning the plains near the border with Rice Paddies Country (now Sound Country) into what we call now Valley of the End.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It's in that place where Senju Hashirama finally killed Uchiha Madara, as both of them stood on the river, with a sword through the heart from the back:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[...] I retrieved the body from the bottom of the river. […] The cause of death is blood loss from a massive wound with a sharp object next to the th9 vertebrae and through the heart, with an exit wound on the sternum. [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Senju Tobirama's record of the autopsy performed on Uchiha Madara's body on May 27</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span>, 1921.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's in that same place where Senju Hashirama erected a monument to remember the fight. A Rice Paddies Country delegate proposed it to celebrate a substantial trading agreement, but it looked quite different to what it ended up being, at Hashirama's insistence:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[…] </span>
  </em>
  <span>[The delegate from Rice Paddies Country]</span>
  <em>
    <span> proposed a statue in the Valley of the End, depicting Hokage-sama standing victor above Uchiha Madara. […] Hokage-sama replied it would be an honour, but he would like to make some changes to the monument [...]</span>
  </em>
  <span> (Minutes from the meeting with Toriyama Ebisu, delegate from Rice Paddies Country, on July 29</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span>, 1925.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>A statue of Hashirama stands on the Fire Country side of the waterfall that serves at the border, and a statue of Madara stands on the Sound Country side. Both are behemoths of over 140 meters high, and they depict both Founders facing each other and making the sign used to mark the beginning of a fight</span> <em><span>(A/N: the Seal of Confrontation, made by holding the index and middle fingers of the dominant hand up and folding the rest, is traditionally used before a spar or training session)</span></em><span>. For some reason, both of them are shown with stylized armor instead of the style actually used during the time, and Madara is depicted wearing a furisode </span><em><span>(E/N: these statues were destroyed during the Fourth World War)</span></em><span>.</span></p><p>
  <span>I think this monument is an interesting window into Hashirama's mind after killing Madara. For him maybe it wasn't something to be proud of, more like an open wound at his friends defection, and therefore didn't want to be depicted as victorious above a foe, but on equal standing with a friend.</span>
</p><p><span>The furisode is driving me crazy, though. Was the furisode Hashirama's way to signal Madara's defeat? Did he just want to get his feelings out in the open in as subtle a way as he found?</span> <em><span>(A/N: A furisode is not a man's kimono, except when used by the 'subordinate' part of a gay couple. Nowhere in the whole of Konoha's Historical Archives could I find any reason that may suggest they were in a physical relationship, not even in Hashirama's diaries, and he was very forthcoming about his sex life, so I ruled it out as a possibility as soon as it crossed my mind</span></em><span>). Or both or neither?</span></p><p>
  <span>[…]</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now I'll try to wrap this rambling mess of mine, and hopefully shed some light into one of the biggest tragedies of the shinobi world, one that probably shaped the modern world into what it is today.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hashirama and Madara met when they were kids and shared a dream of peace despite fighting one another for many years. Then they fulfilled that dream, and somewhere along the line love bloomed between them, but it was doomed twofold from the very beginning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because, you see, even if at the time gay relationships were common, there was always a component of a 'superior' and a 'subordinate': someone who went out to earn the bread and someone who stayed home, and between the Heads of the two most powerful shinobi clans there couldn't be one above the other. They could only be equals, especially if they wanted Konoha to work the way they intended.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Neither Senju nor Uchiha would tolerate their Head to be less than the other's, or Konoha would become a farce, with a clan subservient to the other instead of two clans on equal standing. That was the first dooming, the social one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The second dooming was personal, and therefore more tragic: Hashirama was Madara's world, but the village was Hashirama's.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Konoha was more important than anything else in Hashirama's mind, including his own happiness, </span>
  <em>
    <span>including Madara</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and if marriage was the price to secure an alliance with the most powerful Hidden Village at the time, Hashirama was willing to pay it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And now we circle back to love, the common denominator in all of this. It is said that the Uchiha love harder than anyone else, and that a broken heart leads them easily to hate. A village with Hashirama within hand reach but so far away wasn't a dream for Madara: it was a nightmare, and it had to be erased, and under this light I can understand why he attacked with the Kyuubi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His love was deep but oh so selfish it ended up consuming him in the end. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mine or nobody's </span>
  </em>
  <span>taken to the nth factor because these are </span>
  <em>
    <span>Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara </span>
  </em>
  <span>we're talking about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And on the opposite shore we have Senju Hashirama's love: all-encompassing, so huge it's bigger than himself, than his happiness. He loved a </span>
  <em>
    <span>dream, </span>
  </em>
  <span>an </span>
  <em>
    <span>ideal,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and in that he was a bit selfish too. </span>
  <em>
    <span>My village, my people, my dream. I love them more than I love you, </span>
  </em>
  <span>so when Madara stopped fooling around with his blitzkrieg-like attacks and </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually </span>
  </em>
  <span>threatened Konoha, Hashirama couldn't postpone taking action any longer. He didn't have to choose because he had chosen when he accepted his bride-to-be's visit to the village.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I am tempted to find some sort of Aesop or moral in this, but this is real life, and real life is sorely lacking in them. Instead, I will leave you with only this: love shaped the ideal of shinobi, and therefore shaped the life of every shinobi since the Founding. Senju Hashirama's love for the village, so strong that he was willing to sacrifice everything for it, led to the ideal of what a Kage should be; Uchiha Madara's love for a man, so strong it was either live with him or die by his hand, led to the archetype of the crazy missing-nin we were taught to fear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And those archetypes are so ingrained in our collective consciousness, even outside Fire Country, that every piece of media depicting shinobi will have two characters: the good guy, who will invariably have straight, perfect hair, usually long, and the bad guy, who will always have long, bluish black messy hair. </span>
</p><p><span>Now that you have those descriptions in mind go take a look at the existing photographs of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara and you'll </span><em><span>see </span></em><span>not only </span>how deeply ingrained in the collective unconsciousness these two men are, but how far they influence reach even in the modern world.</p>
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